The Execs & Cons of Mirrors within the Studio — A Dancer’s Life
CON: don’t develop their very own dance type
A scholar’s dance type takes some time to good because it’s distinctive to them solely. As they develop and achieve expertise within the trade, they study from others and aren’t liable to copying one dance type (except suggested to when studying a mode like Fosse). Though, college students can subconsciously replicate actions which prevents them from creating their very own type if that mirror will get in the way in which. By encouraging college students to attend workshops and lessons run by a myriad of academics, they gained’t simply replicate your type, as an alternative it’ll broaden their horizons.
So far as coaching instruments go, mirrors might be a wonderful support for college students learning dance, however identical to all coaching instruments, there might be disadvantages to mirrors in the event that they’re not used carefully. To scale back the potential for college students turning into depending on them, strive splitting your class in two teams to face one another and rehearse. This may problem college students to make use of their muscle reminiscence and really feel prompted by their friends dancing throughout from them. Do not forget that the important thing to a troupe that performs as a collective is how properly they know one another, so that you’ll be stunned at how confidently a bunch performs with out mirrors after they construct that sense of belief exterior of dance as properly. Weeks previous to that dance examination, flip the scholars round to face a wall as an alternative of the mirror. This may help college students in with the ability to memorise the choreography with it embedded of their physique. They are going to then be capable to mechanically differentiate issues like a sickled and pointed foot by the way it feels, not by the way it seems to be. Along with this, asking college students to appropriate their method can train them to determine and alter positions versus getting within the behavior of mirroring them. To counteract the hazards of gazing your self within the mirror, encourage a wholesome perspective on physique picture by being intentional about your language when referring to college students our bodies. Our our bodies are fairly unbelievable, so by putting emphasis on what they’ll do and never what they appear to be, you possibly can have fun the individuality of all physique sorts.
Sources:
Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: A Dance Teacher’s Perspective
Article by Lara Divitcos
Images by Elly Ford
